2016

I initially had planned to try to read 40 books this year but never really kept up with that plan. In the end, I read a total of 23 books, eight of which were of the Sherlock Holmes series, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in my attempt to read the entire collection. I was fortunate enough to find a deal on the entire collected Sherlock Holmes for my Nook for $2. For how much enjoyment this series has been giving me, I think I may have gotten the steal of the century for that price! Only one more Sherlock Holmes book to go!

I had also planned to review more of the books I had read, though not all of them. Unfortunately I didn't keep up with that either, so I'm planning on reviewing more books in 2017.

Here's the list of all 23 books I read this year, in the order I read them:

1. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
2. On Stieg Larsson, by multiple authors, translated by Laurie Thompson
3. Revival, by Stephen King
4. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
5. The Three Body Problem, by Cixin Liu
6. Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse
7. Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
8. The Stranger, by Albert Camus
9. The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka
10. Beowulf, by unknown
11. A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
12. Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. Alight, by Scott Sigler
14. Thinner, by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)
15. The Sign of Four, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
16. The Sudden Appearance of Hope, by Claire North
17. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
18. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
19. The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
20. The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
21. The Valley of Fear, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
22. The Way of Zen, by Alan Watts
23. His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Of the books listed above, my favorite of the year would definitely be The Kite Runner. To round out my top five books of the year, I would have to include (in no particular order): Thinner, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Stranger, and Alight.

My least favorite read of the year would be The Three Body Problem. After thinking more about it, I'm not sure I want to continue with the series.

Goal for 2016 is to read at least 30 books. Ideally my plan is to read 3 books per month: one book from the Catching Up on Classics book club on Goodreads, one Shakespeare play, and one book of my own choosing. If I can stick to that, my total for the year would be 36 books, but I think 30 is a reasonable goal!